Voting Closes For Presidential Election, Results On July 20th

Congress president Sonia Gandhi rallied opposition ranks before the vote, also calling the contest a "clash of ideas and a conflict of disparate values". However, 93 of them were rejected on various grounds, leaving only Kovind and Meira Kumar in the fray.

BJP-led NDA's presidential candidate Ram Nath Kovind said on Thursday that he will work in accordance with the spirit of the constitution and take care of all religions and sects. Further decimating the Opposition, the saffron party indulged in efficient electioneering in the run-up to the polls, claiming the support of JD (U), BJD, TRS, YSR Congress and AIADMK from the non-NDA camp. "This session gives the country an opportunity to elect the president and the vice president".

A total of 4,896 lawmakers - parliamentarians and legislators - are expected to vote in Monday's election.

Chief minister K Chandrasekhar Rao on Sunday held a meeting with his party MLAs and MPs here and directed them to vote for the NDA nominee. "We had announced it earlier itself because we can not vote for a candidate who was supported by CPI-M", Sudip Burman, leader of the group of sacked TMC MLAs told reporters. "We requested all MLAs, MPs of the party to support for Ram Nath Kovind". The voting has been taking place in Room no 62 in Parliament. Once the voting is done, all the paper ballots will be brought to Lok Sabha where the counting begins before announcing the result on Thursday. He underlined that 40 political parties have come out in support of Kovind which shows the growing clout of NDA.